INVASION USA

Illegals, the terrorist and the Red Sox

Roger Hedgecock is a nationally syndicated talk-show host. Prior to his broadcasting career, he worked as an attorney and political leader. Hedgecock is a strong supporter of the military and founded Homefront San Diego, assisting thousands of military families in obtaining needed items. Learn more about Roger at RogerHedgecock.com.

Cut some slack for your Massachusetts friends. They’re grumpy – and they have a right to be.

The fall guy was Francona, but the el foldo was a team effort – OK, especially the pitchers. The Red Sox fans got blindsided – turns out the Curse of the Bambino was just sleeping.

Then there’s Rezwan Ferdaus, the Bangladeshi-descended but homegrown (Ashland) jihadi who was planning to ram model airplanes (made in China?) stuffed with C-4 explosives into the Capitol and Pentagon. What? Couldn’t the guy target a tea-party rally instead?

But grumpiness turned to outrage when Bay State citizens were killed because Gov. Deval Patrick refused to join a federal program to deport criminal illegals. He was joined in opposition to the program by the Democrat governors of Illinois and California. All three recognize that illegals are simply undocumented Democrats. And these days Democrats, even in those blue states, cannot afford to lose a single voter.

Three Massachusetts County sheriffs held a joint news conference last week to denounce Gov. Patrick for “opting out” of the federal Secure Communities program, under which the fingerprints of an arrestee in the state would be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to deport those who were illegal aliens.

The three sheriffs were reacting to a rash of crimes committed by illegals, many of them repeat offenders, some repeatedly deported only to sneak back into the country to commit more crimes.

Gov. Patrick reacted with a scattergun of backside covering blather, first saying the sheriffs were grandstanding, then that the sheriffs are racially profiling, then that he didn’t really oppose the program, then that the feds would enforce the mandatory national program over his objections anyway.

He really wanted to say that the sheriffs were racist rednecks trying to politically lynch him, but he wasn’t on his A game that day any more than the Red Sox were.

Maybe the governor actually remembered what Margaret Heffernan, his head of the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, said last June when the governor first announced his preference for criminal illegal aliens. “We are reluctant to participate if the program is mandatory and unwilling to participate if it is voluntary.”

On Aug. 22, Nicholas Guaman, 34, an Ecuadorian citizen illegally in the U.S., driving drunk, hit motorcyclist Matthew Denice and dragged him a quarter of a mile under his truck as he tried to flee the scene of the accident. Horrified witnesses ran alongside Guaman’s truck, banging on the windows yelling at him to stop as Matthew screamed in agony until he stopped screaming and died.

Guaman has been charged with motor vehicle homicide and operating a vehicle under the influence. He had no driver’s license and no insurance. Guaman had been previously arrested in Milford in February on charges of assault and battery on a police officer and breaking and entering.

Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangilides told the press conference that if the Secure Communities program had been in effect that Guaman would have been taken into custody by DHS after the February arrest and deported and Matthew Denice would be alive today.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano says that more than 200,000 criminal illegals were deported last year and that the situation is under control. She promised that the Secure Communities program would be implemented nationwide by 2013. Move on, nothing to see here.

But Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins, speaking at the joint press conference, wants DHS to immediately deport 123 of the 1,200 county inmates his staff says are illegals. He and Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson say the illegals must go now to protect the public. They can’t wait until 2013. If Secure Communities cannot be used until 2013, the sheriffs have asked DHS to train and deputize sheriffs’ personnel under the existing “287(g)” program to fight the problem now.

Are the sheriffs right to be skeptical of the Obama DHS intention to really enforce the law? Well, consider that last week, Obama’s half uncle Onyango Obama appeared in court in Framingham, Mass., to answer charges of drunk driving.

When arrested, Onyango had said he would “call the White House.” He didn’t, but giggled in court as a November hearing date was scheduled in his case. The he returned to his job at Conti Liquor. Onyango is illegally in the country and was ordered deported years ago. Under federal law, he shouldn’t be working here. Before he kills some Massachusetts citizen in a drunk-driving accident, shouldn’t someone at DHS enforce the deportation order?

The cynic in us would note that crime stats nationwide are showing a remarkable drop in criminal activity in most parts of the country, including Massachusetts. Maybe the intention is to protect criminal illegals so they can commit the crimes that American criminals will no longer commit.